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You should not miss anyone. Especially, you should go to as many student recitals as you can. They may be one of the top performers some day, or they may be one that has not been discovered, and they may never be discovered. A local performer could be as great a pianist as a touring professional, but may not want that career. You just never know.

Andromaque
3000 Post Club Member
Registered: 08/29/08
Posts: 3886
Loc: New York

Goode is touring with a late Beethoven sonatas program this year.It was also nice to see that Pollini is scheduled to perform in Europe and the US this year after a 2 year absence. He is planning an All Beethoven concert in May and Chopin+Debussy's Preludes I in April.

Don't forget chamber music. Isserlis and Kirill Gerstein are touring the US with a marvelous program of Brahms sonatas for cello+piano and Ades' Lieux retrouves in several venues this year. The music making is superb and very moving.

.....Isserlis and Kirill Gerstein are touring the US with a marvelous program of Brahms sonatas for cello+piano and Ades' Lieux retrouves in several venues this year. The music making is superb and very moving......

Wow. I'm not embarrassed to admit that I started to drool when I read this!

(Concerts are a tough deal for me nowadays, because I currently live a 3 hour drive away from a major city.)

_________________________
Piano performance and instruction (former college music professor).

Andromaque
3000 Post Club Member
Registered: 08/29/08
Posts: 3886
Loc: New York

Originally Posted By: Gerard12

Originally Posted By: Andromaque

.....Isserlis and Kirill Gerstein are touring the US with a marvelous program of Brahms sonatas for cello+piano and Ades' Lieux retrouves in several venues this year. The music making is superb and very moving......

Wow. I'm not embarrassed to admit that I started to drool when I read this!

(Concerts are a tough deal for me nowadays, because I currently live a 3 hour drive away from a major city.)

That recital was probably one of the most beautiful two hour spans I have spent, in a while. I was moved not just by the beauty of the music, but by the intense musicianship and dedication to the music by two amazing artists. There was such great synergy between them and so little drama and ego display. Breathtaking! Travel the 3 hours if they land anywhere near you!

I guess that there are some great pianists who don't (or won't) play in the USA for whatever reason these days. Among the pianists I never miss are Krystian Zimerman and Mikhail Pletnev (who recently raised hopes he might start playing in public again). Benjamin Grosvenor recently joined that group. And now that I've heard her, Yuja Wang too.

Oh, and Lang Lang, who never fails to lift my spirits, whether or not I agree with what he does .

_________________________
"I don't play accurately - anyone can play accurately - but I play with wonderful expression. As far as the piano is concerned, sentiment is my forte. I keep science for Life."

I have seen Lang Lang, Yuja Wang, and Perahia. I have a ticket to see Kissin in April. Pollini is also coming in April and I plan to see him. I had a ticket for Hamelin (Baltimore's Shriver Hall concert series) but unfortunately was not able to make it.

Sokolov and Pletnev are very distinctive in performance while the rest of the above lists are wonderful but to me not as fulfilling. Its like seeing Gilels at Carnegie Hall when I was in college. Just mind altering playing everyone else is so similar.

I recommend attending recitals at universities and music schools in your area, especially those given by faculty and visiting artists. I've attended some that were more enjoyable than those given by famous artists, for no charge or a nominal fee.

I must say, I was a bit disappointed with Dinnerstein. I love the Goldbergs, but (to me at least) she made them seem bland and boring. But I guess it tend to show that tiny changes in dynamics, phrasing, etc. can mean the difference between an average performance and a great one.

I must say, I was a bit disappointed with Dinnerstein. I love the Goldbergs, but (to me at least) she made them seem bland and boring. But I guess it tend to show that tiny changes in dynamics, phrasing, etc. can mean the difference between an average performance and a great one.

Hi Prélude. I wasn't at the concert, and I don't know Dinnerstein's playing, so I can't defend her playing. But you'll nearly always have a hard time if you are comparing what you hear in a concert to a recording that you've heard ad infinitum.

I recommend attending recitals at universities and music schools in your area, especially those given by faculty and visiting artists. I've attended some that were more enjoyable than those given by famous artists, for no charge or a nominal fee.

I agree. I have seen many of the big names in piano today. Probably most all of my favorite performances have been given at student or professor recitals. Example- I have heard Lang Lang and Andre Watts perform the Rachmaninoff 2nd Concerto. I have also heard it performed twice, by two separate students. In order of who I like best: Student #1, Lang Lang, Student #2, Watts.

Famous pianists have either good publicists/connections/won competitions (or all three). There are many pianists around who do not have those things, yet still have the technique and passion to make for a wonderful performance.

I agree. I have seen many of the big names in piano today. Probably most all of my favorite performances have been given at student or professor recitals. Example- I have heard Lang Lang and Andre Watts perform the Rachmaninoff 2nd Concerto. I have also heard it performed twice, by two separate students. In order of who I like best: Student #1, Lang Lang, Student #2, Watts.

Famous pianists have either good publicists/connections/won competitions (or all three). There are many pianists around who do not have those things, yet still have the technique and passion to make for a wonderful performance.

I have the opposite impression, from decades of attending concerts. For the first ten years (after I started working and could afford it), I'd go to every concert I could attend, regardless of the fame or otherwise of the pianist. Every concert then was a discovery for me, and I enjoyed comparing and contrasting different interpretations of the same works. Some of the pianists whose concerts I went to were unknown names who eventually became celebrated within a few years. I also attended as many free student recitals as I could.

Since then, I've become more picky about going to concerts that aren't free , and have come to the realization that celebrated pianists are celebrated for good reasons (I discount people like Richard Clayderman et al.....): they almost invariably have that indefinable 'wow' factor that made me prick up my ears and really, really listen. I still remember attending Mikhail Pletnev's first London concert in a small hall - he was then an unknown name in the West, just one of several Soviet pianists who won the Tchaikovsky Competition and allowed to play in the West for the first time. The almost insolent ease with which he tossed off the most fiendish difficulties (in Rachmaninoff's Etudes-tableaux), the amazing range of colour and articulation no matter how dizzying the tempi, his individual quirks and razor-sharp wit (not something Russian pianists are noted for) all pointed to real star quality. And so it proved over the next few years....

Conversely, most other young pianists I heard were very competent but nothing special. The only free student concert I'd heard that made me sit up and take notice was by someone who, a few years later, won a major competition and went on to big things.

_________________________
"I don't play accurately - anyone can play accurately - but I play with wonderful expression. As far as the piano is concerned, sentiment is my forte. I keep science for Life."

Famous pianists have either good publicists/connections/won competitions (or all three). There are many pianists around who do not have those things, yet still have the technique and passion to make for a wonderful performance.

Agreed. Yuja Wang was here this weekend with a local orchestra. She was on the news on the main channel, with the minidress and the stiletto heels. Sokolov, Kissin, Perahia, come pretty much every year and you struggle to find a review on any newspaper. This is no coincidence and definitely not down to artistry.

Famous pianists have either good publicists/connections/won competitions (or all three). There are many pianists around who do not have those things, yet still have the technique and passion to make for a wonderful performance.

Agreed. Yuja Wang was here this weekend with a local orchestra. She was on the news on the main channel, with the minidress and the stiletto heels. Sokolov, Kissin, Perahia, come pretty much every year and you struggle to find a review on any newspaper. This is no coincidence and definitely not down to artistry.

Sokolov, Kissin and Perahia are long-established names with long-established reputations, connections and recording contracts (except Sokolov, through every fault of his own....). Perahia has just been celebrated by Sony with a huge 67 CD + 5 DVD box containing all his CBS/Sony recordings plus Vox and BBC recordings. What any reviewer say about their concerts will have little impact on their marketability.

Yuja Wang on the other hand is still making a name for herself. (Only last year, she made her debut in London's International Piano series, not in the big Royal Festival Hall, but the smaller Queen Elizabeth Hall.) Naturally, her fashion sense will be scrutinized.....

What really would be interesting is if there's an unknown name with fabulous technique and musicianship comparable to Sokolov, Kissin and Perahia - and been around a while - but has still not been picked up by concert managements and the pianistic cognoscenti. I can't think of any.

_________________________
"I don't play accurately - anyone can play accurately - but I play with wonderful expression. As far as the piano is concerned, sentiment is my forte. I keep science for Life."